By Mike Dale
Should players be allowed to receive coaching during matches? It's a debate that has filled plenty of airtime and column inches across several sports.
Last year, the International Tennis Federation (ITF) controversially changed its rules, allowing "discreet verbal or hand signal advice from coaches during breaks" — but never during a point — across professional tours and Majors.
Squash, meanwhile, has stuck to its more stringent approach. Rule 14.6.11 states that a player receiving coaching during a match "can receive a conduct warning, conduct stroke or conduct game if necessary."
Visitors to recent editions of the British Junior Open cannot fail to have witnessed examples of blatant disregard for (or ignorance of) this rule.
Top-level junior squash is teeming with over-bearing parents and coaches desperate to bellow their words of wisdom over the back wall whilst matches are ongoing.
Last year, your author witnessed one coach being ordered to "sit on his hands and be quiet" by a referee. But the coach still failed to control himself, even after a conduct stroke was issued against his player.
To combat these sorts of undignified scenes at this January's centennial BJO in Birmingham - which concluded last week - the referees decided to take action. Instead of relaxing their approach like the tennis authorities, they doubled down.
Having conducted a review of incidents at the 2025 BJO, WSO professional referee Jason Foster, tournament referee Peter Hindmarsh and England Squash's competition manager Laura Mumford decided to take a firm approach this year.
Hindmarsh tells Squash Player: "Last year, 60% of the conduct strokes were against one particular nation, and 60% of those were for coaching during play.
"We'd given a lot of conduct warnings and had to give conduct strokes, so clearly that message wasn't getting through. It reiterated to us how much we needed to take positive action.
"We took the stance that we would go straight to conduct stroke [at first offence]. If there was a repeat, it would be escalated to conduct game and the coach would be removed from the playing area."
The decision was communicated to all teams as they arrived in Birmingham through the tournament referee's statement, a WSO workshop and at the teams meeting.
"Everybody was forewarned that we were taking this stance," says Hindmarsh.
At the referees' meeting on the first morning of the tournament, Foster and Hindmarsh reiterated to all officials that the new approach had to be applied from the very first rally.
To be clear, the referees' approach at the BJO did not constitute a rule change, just a stricter interpretation of the existing rule. The wording of Rule 14.6.11 allows for flexibility and discretion in how to punish in-match coaching, and tournament officials decided the time was right for a little more severity.
So, what was the outcome? "Extremely positive," says Hindmarsh.
"We had far fewer conduct strokes issued this year than previously. Not once did we have to escalate it to a conduct game. I would say that was a very positive course of action and response.
"It had a positive effect and that's down to coaches showing a little bit more respect for the rule. If they're coaching the player, it's their own player who gets punished. That's not in their interests, so just let the kids get on with it."
One other area that was successfully addressed this year in Birmingham was coaches, parents and supporters rushing on to court to celebrate after the winning point — sometimes even before the handshake had taken place.
This rather undignified spectacle was noticeably absent this year, partly due to a changed layout behind the back wall of the show courts and also through clear communication that post-match court invasions would be punishable by the winning player's immediate disqualification.
"It was a strong deterrent and it clearly worked," said Hindmash.
Directives on sharing the ball evenly during the warm-up, tactically delaying play by wiping goggles and banning towels on court (for the same reason) were also broadly heeded.
Players' behaviour was by no means perfect across venues and hotels through the week of the 2026 British Junior Open, but the proactive refereeing clampdown did at least address some of the issues that have plagued junior squash events in recent times.
